The Friday Gathering for 3/14/2008

The past two weeks have been nuts for my family and I. We just can’t seem to shake being sick. When one of us gets better, seems someone else gets sick. My wife was up most of the night last night with a migraine headache due what we think may be a sinus infection. I was sick the previous week, and our kids have been sick off an on in between. Fortunately it seems the kids are past it, as they’ve been healthy overall for the past few days. I’m praying that once my wife gets past this one we’ll be past all of the sickness mess!

The good news is that it seems spring has finally arrived here in the south as today will be the 3rd or 4th consecutive 70 degree day. The trees are blooming, the grass is getting greener and everybody seems to be outside more. I love spring and frankly just glad to be done with the dreary cold weather.

Poll update – Partial articles on the homepage?

My recent sidebar poll asked you if you read these gathering posts. While I didn’t get the amount of votes I expected, I did get enough to tell me that most of you read them, so I’ll keep doing them!

Keeping up with my intent to make this a site for you, the readers, I have another poll up so you can provide your feedback. I currently have 3 full articles on my home page.ï¿½ I am considering showing only the first part of each article on the homepage instead of the whole articles. This would allow you to see more articles on the main page, and scan through to decide which ones you would like read. The downside of course is that you would have to click through to read the full article.

Before I make that change though, I want to hear from you on how you feel about it. I’ll only make the change if you’re in favor of it overall. Here’s the poll, so cast your vote!

The Gathering

Building a Square Foot Garden from Being Frugal – Great project! We made one last year and our kids had a blast building it, watching the vegetables grow, and eating them!

Which Debt to Slay First? – Reader Question from Cash Money Life – Patrick answers a readers question about which debts to pay off first. His advice is dead on, as he recommends Dave Ramsey’s baby steps, a proven plan for taking care of your debt.

Tracking Time with Firefox Extensions from The Dough Roller – I’m a huge Firefox user and proponent. DR shares a ton of Firefox extensions that help you track things like your time, packages, cell phone minutes and more. Cool stuff and I LOVE the Firefox car!

Why You Should Keep and Organize Your Warranties from Mrs. Micah – Mrs. Micah shares a story from her old job that stresses the importance of keeping the warrenty information for things you buy. I agree and store all of mine in a file folder. Which reminds me, I probably need to clean it out…

the whole life sabbatical from brip blap – Steve talks about walking away from all of life’s commitments and responsibilities. This is a very interesting and thoughtful series that helps you think through what’s important, what’s not and whether you could just walkaway.

Free laptop nation – how free is it? From CleverDude – CleverDude investigates free laptop nation. I’ve seen the commercials, but figured it was just a scam. CleverDude shows it’s not, and that if you are very diligent and detailed it’s not a bad deal. He takes you through step by step on how to do it.

5 Things to NOT Buy for Your Kids from Mommy Gets Paid – This would be a good read for most people with kids. It amazes me the stuff people buy for their kids. The article also shares a few things that you may think you need with a new baby, but really don’t.

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My partner caught the flu this year twice in a row followed up by a migraine. The rest of us didn’t catch a thing which is a first. We have all started to zap our hands with hand sanitizer and I really believe that helped in this household. Hope you all get and stay well soon.

My whole family had the flu last week, and it was a miserable time. I hope you and yours get over your ailments soon!

I’ve never been a big fan of partial posts, in feed readers or on the home page. I’d prefer you leave the full articles available on the home page, but that’s just my opinion – I’ll still visit either way!

Good point on cleaning out the warranty drawer. If you don’t have the item any more or if no part of the warranty is valid, there’s no point in having it take up valuable space and come between you and your other warranties.

I sure do hope you all feel better. I haven’t been sick so far this winter but my wife and son have been sick one after the other, and it’s tough (on them and me). And in my case it’s just the one kid, so I can’t even imagine how much tougher it would be with 6!